


Home is where I find you

by Somecallmemichelle



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Family, Firebending, Friendship, Grief, Home, Hurt/Comfort, Trust, War, Waterbending, Zutara, Zutara Month, Zutara Month 2016, warmth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 05:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9420386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somecallmemichelle/pseuds/Somecallmemichelle
Summary: For Zutara month 2016 day 24, in which the prompt was Home.Katara and Zuko both lost someone close to them, and it just so happened to be their mothers. The costs of the 100 year war have been heavy on them. And, in the moon light nights, there is no one Katara goes over to talk about her feelings and emotions, but Zuko. After all he sacrificed everything to help them...the second time around at least.(This fic is 100% canon compliant, except for the pairing)





	

She comes to him in the night. Questions burning up in her tongue, like the fire he so loves to produce. The relationship they have kept each other from seeking. - He an unseferable bastard made to see the true path, she just a lonely girl from the Southern Water Tribe, ripe in its beginnings.   
  
It is cold out, not that that seems to matter to Zuko, Zuko who has a little fire dancing in his hand, the tips of it swindling into the cold air. There is plenty of oxygen to feed the flames, so he doesn’t have to worry about them being put out.

  
“You know…” - He says. In his tone of “I don’t care, and I know I don’t care, so why would I care if you care?”, the tone of pretense, the tone that he uses to try and pretend his heart doesn’t hop when he sees her. - “If you were any louder, I’d have sworn you were purposefully trying to make noise. You’ll wake up the others!”

 

Of course, Katara blushes. How could she not? He stares straight ahead, a thousand yard smile, seemingly lost in the sea, but that effect he has on her...oh how she hates that feeling.

  
But it’s a good feeling to have and, despite all the heat rushing to her cheeks, and the dismay at his audacity, the thought of “ _ Oh you little” _ , she can’t help but smile. It’s a reason that seems to come from her, without any prompting.

 

She sits by him, close, though not too close, just far enough away she can claim that it’s a friendly distance away. Though really, she yearns to be closer. And Zuko still stares straight ahead, avoiding looking into her eyes. Because he knows, that if he does, something will ignite. And he might just do the thing and kiss her.

 

“What’s the point?” - She whispers, in the same low voice that he used to talk to her. - “Toph can probably hear us, Sokka can fall asleep anywhere and Aang...well I am not exactly as light on my feet as him. Or as Toph would call him, Twinkle Toes…”

 

She half chuckles at the joke she made, or at least at the pretense of it. Really it’s nothing more than a reference to the saying of another, but it’s funny nonetheless. Zuko doesn’t laugh, but he aknowledges the joke with a little smirk.

 

There’s a little moment of silence, of trepidation, as Katara looks at the mark in Zuko’s face. She knows the story - she knows how cold the Fire Lord can be, no matter how much fire he can exhale. And, in a way, she sympathises with him. He who also lost a mother. He who betayed those of his blood, three times.

 

In a way, same as she was lost as the only waterbender in all the South Pole, he was lost, as a kind spirit in a world of war and tactics. But that doesn’t seem to matter to him. He kept going with his attitude of “I am not giving up”

 

Even if the thing he was chasing was one of their friends, the one who slept nearby...sure he would eventually make the right choice. But not before months of attacks and trying to get Aang. And the costs…

 

Katara sighs, and, for the first time, Zuko looks at her. If he could frame her beauty, from the way her hair is disheveled and falls in front of her face. - Probably due to her attempts at sleep. - To her kindred spirit, he would. But he doesn’t think anyone can do it. Never has anyone captured it as such.

 

“My uncle -” He interrupts himself, clearly choking on the words, yet trying his best to avoid showing it. - “I mean, he always told me, that getting something out of your chest helps. I’m not good at this feelings thing.” - And with that he makes hand gestures, the flame he had been keeping bright for warmth and light disappearing. - “But if you need to talk…”

 

Katara knows how hard this is on him. And while she, in the past, would have told him he deserved all that ailed him, now she can’t but feel empathy. She gently places a hand on his shoulder. Which she can do since they’re both sitting.

 

“Zuko I…” - She sighs again, the image of the burn in his face all too apparent now that he’s staring at him. - “It’s just...do you think you’ll ever return home?”

 

Zuko stays silent for several minutes, and Katara is afraid she has offended him with the question, in her mind she chides herself. What a dumb question, what with his mother missing and the family he had…? How could she.

 

But, after what seems like hours he replies.

 

“Sometimes I…” - Words are hard to come by for him, and this is not the last of his short pauses for wondering. - “I don’t think I have a home anymore. I’m the exhiled prince, right?” - He flinches, moving away from her, as if remembering the burn his father inflicted upon him. - “I thought about returning home a hero, with the avatar…” - He takes a deep breath. - “Then I had the chance and I realised that was not what I wanted. If I’m being honest, I always had a home, with my uncle, at least after the exhile….and now I’ve got a home with you. Sokka may be annoying, but hey, you’re here.”

 

She lets out a little smile at that, though pain is still apparent in her eyes. It’s clear that her worries are those that can’t be alleviated with kind words only.

 

“When I lost my mother...well Sokka and I bickered.” - She let out a half chuckle, half lost to the wind. - “We still do mostly. But he’s family. And home is where family is…”

 

She put one of her hands against his. They were hot, perhaps from the fire, perhaps from the way his body was, but that didn’t matter.

  
“Traveling the Four Nations...well three...I’ve seen a lot of amazing stuff!” - She pressed her hand. - “So much stuff I couldn’t even list it. But you….the way you came to our rescue, the second time around…” - He looked sheepish at that, he had made a wrong move and he knew it. - “...I find home in  _ you _ , Zuko, and I’m sure we’ll rescue our uncle. I won’t let it be like my mother.”

 

Her jaw clenched. Still shaking, Katara was  half afraid she’d start crying. Yet her eyes were filled with the determination to end this war.   
  


At last, Zuko smiled.

  
  
  
  


  
  



End file.
